The revelation Friday that a former commander of an Nazi SS-led military unit has lived quietly in Minneapolis for the past six decades came as a shock to people who knew him, prompted harsh condemnations from World War II survivors in the U.S. and Europe and led prosecutors in Poland to say they would investigate.

An Associated Press investigation found that 94-year-old Michael Karkoc served as a top commander in the Ukrainian Self-Defense Legion during World War II. The unit is accused of wartime atrocities. Wartime records don’t show that Karkoc had a direct hand in war crimes, though records indicate he lied about his military past when immigrating to the U.S. in 1949.

“I know him personally. We talk, laugh. He takes care of his yard and walks with his wife,” his next-door neighbor, Gordon Gnasdoskey, said Friday. Gnasdoskey, the grandson of a Ukrainian immigrant himself, said he was disturbed by the revelations about his longtime neighbor.

No one answered the door Friday at Karkoc’s house in Northeast Minneapolis. Karkoc had earlier declined to comment on his wartime service when approached by the AP.

Sam Rafowitz, an 88-year-old Jewish resident of Minnetonka, grew up in Warsaw, Poland, and spent four years working in concentration camps. He took a hard line after hearing the news about Karkoc.

“I think they should put him on trial,” said Rafowitz.

He may get his wish: Poland’s National Remembrance Institute, which prosecutes wartime crimes, said its prosecutors would investigate Karkoc’s “possible role” in crimes committed by the legion and would provide “every possible assistance” in gathering evidence for the U.S. justice system.

Karkoc became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1959.

Gnasdoskey said the neighborhood where he and Karkoc live was once a destination for displaced persons from Slavic countries, Ukraine, Poland and other countries in the region. The area has diversified over the years but is still occupied by the last of those residents, along with some of their descendants. Karkoc and his family are longtime members of the St. Michael’s and St. George’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church, among several Catholic and Orthodox churches in the neighborhood.

“All the time I am here, I know him as a good man, a good citizen,” said the Rev. Evhen Kumka, the church’s pastor. “He’s well known in the congregation.”

Kumka moved from Ukraine to Minnesota 19 years ago to lead the congregation. He wouldn’t say whether he had spoken to Karkoc about his past but said he was skeptical.

“I don’t think everything is correct,” Kumka said. “As I know him, he is a good example for many people.”

Valentina Yarr of Minneapolis, a former president of the church council, said she had known Karkoc and members of his family for many years.

“I don’t have anything bad to say about him, nor did I ever hear a hint of anything like this,” Yarr said.

Karkoc worked as a carpenter in Minneapolis and appeared in a 1980 issue of Carpenter magazine among a group celebrating 25 years of union membership. He was a member and a secretary in the local branch of the Ukrainian National Association, a fraternal organization, and voting records show he regularly voted in city, state and general elections.

News of Karkoc’s past also prompted anger from World War II survivors overseas, in countries where the Ukrainian Self-Defense Legion was active.

In Poland, Honorata Banach said she wants Karkoc to apologize. She was 20 when she fled the Polish village of Chlaniow before it was burned down by the legion. “There was so much suffering, so many orphans, so much pain,” Banach said.

Rafowitz said he lost his mother and other relatives at the Majadenk concentration camp in Lublin, in German-occupied Poland. He said soldiers in the camp were German but that it was run by Ukrainians.

“You don’t forget,” Rafowitz said. “For me, it’s been almost close to 70 years those things happened, but I still know about it. I still remember everything.”

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